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National Parks Traveler Gets Facelift {Gadling}
Jun 27th 2007 9:27AM Hi. Thanks for supporting their work; I agree with you that it's terrific.
I just feel the need to point out an error here, one that I find is very common all over the internet and in popular myth. Teddy Roosevelt had nothing to do with setting aside Yellowstone as a national park in 1872. Grant was president. Roosevelt also wasn't behind the founding of the Yellowstone Timber Preserve, which carved out much of the rest of the ecosystem of what later became the five national forests and Grand Teton National Park. That happened before he was president. Roosevelt also didn't found the National Park Service, which happened when Wilson was president after his administration. The National Forest Service was founded in his administration, but as I mentioned, the Yellowstone areas had already been set aside.
Roosevelt seems to be associated with Yellowstone because of visits he made, his work in protecting buffalo (after having slaughtered his fair share), and because there are place names named after him. However, he did not set it aside and has nothing to do with the history that set it aside and little to do with the administrative history that made Yellowstone what it is from that standpoint.
I hope people will stop spreading the myth about Roosevelt because it misses a lot both about the parks and about the man himself.
If you want to know more about the creation of Yellowstone, there are a lot of good books, especially by Aubrey Haines, as well as by Lee Whittlesey. It's not a very romantic story, as it turns out, but one that probably began amongst executives in the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Cheers and I do mean sincere thanks for promoting Kurt and Jeremy; they are a true jewel of the internet.
Jim Macdonald
http://www.yellowstone-online.com/eclecticworld.html
